Go steady with Plan S, university group pleads

Funders implementing the controversial open-access initiative Plan S should prioritise compatibility with other initiatives over speed, a group of universities has said.

Universities and learned societies should be heavily involved in a multi-stage implementation of Plan S, the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities said in a position paper published on 2 May.

Under Plan S, funders have said they will require the researchers they support to make their work openly available immediately and with permissive licences only in permitted journals and platforms from 2020. But the guild reiterated a previous complaint that this timeframe is too short, saying “we need to exercise care before speed”.